The present invention relates to a glove containing an embedded communication device. The present invention further relates to a glove that will communicate a signal to an external receiver upon breaching of the glove barrier.
Gloves, medical, surgical, industrial and the like, function principally to protect the human wearer from harm. Such protection includes protection from solid, liquid or even gaseous materials. This protection is necessary, for example, when the human wearer is handling hazardous chemicals or bodily fluids.
Glove manufacturers spend significant amounts of time and money to insure that gloves of their manufacture provide a complete and adequate barrier. Gloves are manufactured in a wide variety of types and, correspondingly, compositions. Nonetheless, a glove wearer relies on a glove to provide an adequate barrier. When a glove""s barrier is breached, the wearer is then exposed to the hazard from which the glove was intended to protect the wearer.
It would therefore be an advantage to have a glove that would warn a wearer that the glove""s barrier has been breached or compromised. It would be a further advantage to have a glove that would transmit a signal to an external receiver when the glove""s barrier has been breached or compromised.
The present invention provides a glove having a sensor and microchip embedded in the glove. The microchip monitors the glove""s integrity, in real-time, by monitoring and analyzing a signal generated by the sensor. The sensor senses one or more of several physical characteristics of the glove, each of which are indicative of the integrity or barrier making capability of the glove. In one embodiment, the glove of the present invention includes a sensor and a wire, a remote communication device can then communicate with the sensor via the wire. The wire may not only serve as an antenna, for sending and receiving data to and from the remote communication device, but the antenna may also function as a power receiver from radio or electromagnetic induction. In this embodiment, the sensor is passive in the sense that all control of the sensor resides in the remote communication device.
In another embodiment, the present invention provides a system for detecting breach of a glove. The system includes a remote communication device which sends and receives wireless communication and also acts as an electromagnetic induction source; a glove; a microchip embedded in the glove, which includes a power supply adapted to generate power from the externally applied electromagnetic induction field generated by the remote communication device; a sensor embedded in the glove which is communicatively linked to the microchip and which senses a physical characteristic of the glove, the physical characteristic being indicative of the integrity of the glove; and a wire antenna embedded in the glove, the wire antenna electronically linked to the sensor and the microchip. The wire antenna is the receiver for the externally applied electromagnetic induction field. The wire antenna can also transmit and receive a signal between the microchip and the remote communication device.